Front diff cover stripped bolt head
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,321
Likes: 250
From: North Texas
Front diff cover stripped bolt head
Getting ready to do diff fluid change and noticed a bolt head on the front cover has been stripped. Anyone know of a good place to find a replacement bolt once I extract it?
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,321
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From: North Texas
The rear diff was serviced 50k miles ago by Ford. I did end up having an axle seal leak on driver and passenger sides 40k mi ago. Fixed myself and topped the differential off. No issues since. I plan to do a full service on it too while I'm addressing the front. There is no record from the previous owners records that the front diff has been serviced at all, but this broken bolt head has me thinking it must have and someone over torqued it.
Hotshot
Joined: Mar 2014
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From: Douglassville, PA
The rear diff was serviced 50k miles ago by Ford. I did end up having an axle seal leak on driver and passenger sides 40k mi ago. Fixed myself and topped the differential off. No issues since. I plan to do a full service on it too while I'm addressing the front. There is no record from the previous owners records that the front diff has been serviced at all, but this broken bolt head has me thinking it must have and someone over torqued it.
Posting Guru
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Looking at the pic, they appear to be ungraded bolts. High strength is not required in that location. So those bolts would be easier to snap compared to a graded fastener, either from corrosion locking it in place or over torque... but the diff cover does not look distorted from what I can see. I'm leaning towards corrosion, which may affect other bolts too.
At least it will be easier to drill an ungraded bolt. I would soak it in PB Blaster for a few days before trying an extraction.
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,321
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From: North Texas
Well, I finally got to this last weekend. The bolt head was not broke off after all. What looked like the shaft of the bolt missing the head, was just dry gasket maker that filled the hole. There was no bolt to begin with 
(Reason #5,032 to do your own work).
All is remedied now and looking nice again after fresh paint.
(Reason #5,032 to do your own work).All is remedied now and looking nice again after fresh paint.